How to Use Samsung’s Frame TV for NFTs and Digital Art

The Frame TV from Samsung isn’t new. In fact, there have been several revised models over the years. And yet, in 2021, the aesthetically focused TV set gained an obvious use: displaying non-fungible tokens. NFTs went very mainstream in 2021 with the likes of Adidas, McDonald’s, Budweiser and other companies joining in to each sell their own NFTs on the blockchain. While the (non-fungible) tokens can be used for anything, from a marriage license to basketball video highlights, a big part of NFTs so far has been avatars and profile pictures—generative art projects.

Apes, cats, robots and squiggly lines were all part of generative art projects that made an impression on buyers. But, after someone has changed their avatar picture on a social network like Facebook or Twitter, there’s a nagging question of how (or where) to display any additional avatars purchased that cost potentially thousands of dollars. One of those ways is with a TV. Christie’s and other auction houses used the Frame to display digital art because it marries a large size with a customizable exterior design.

The Frame is such an obvious way to display NFTs, that Samsung itself announced at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that it would be putting an NFT platform directly on its TVs in 2022.

“I believe displaying digital art is crucial to bringing the digital art world into the traditional art world because it replicates the familiar feeling of hanging a piece of art in your home or gallery,” said graphic artist Bryan Brinkman, who worked on Saturday Night Live and Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. “One of the main aspects of collecting art is displaying it and sharing it. I have digital displays in my house and utilize many web-based galleries. Digital displays, virtual worlds, web-based galleries and editorials are crucial to curating and displaying your work and your collection.”

I went hands-on with a 2021 model of the Frame to get a sense of what it’s like now to display crypto art and how it might be used in the future.

Right-Click, Save

The easiest way, in early 2022, to display purchased NFTs in your home is to download them to your computer or mobile phone and then upload them to a digital frame. For example, Samsung’s Smartthings app allows you to select phones and then save them on the Frame. (This is the same for others like Netgear’s Meural, though the company has announced support for the crypto wallet MetaMask.)

Samsung offers a collage option that can accommodate three photos. And, if you’ve collected several different generative art projects, then this is a way to display those pieces in your house. You can add multiple pictures together or just display one at a time.

Of course, the easy and stereotypical joke around NFTs as they grow in mainstream awareness has been, Why pay for the token when you can just right-click and save it for free? And that’s true—there’s no one stopping you from doing that.

The future of displaying digital art will likely blossom quickly to accommodate crypto wallet authentication. So the process is even easier for owners than saving and re-uploading the images they’ve purchased.

Art Store

If you haven’t purchased an NFT or don’t plan to, there are still other ways to appreciate art digitally around your home. Samsung offers the Frame Art Store to add a pop of color to your walls. At the time of this writing, Samsung is charging $4.99 a month or $49.99 for a year of unlimited access to the art.

The store is curated and grouped among different themes to make traversing the collection of photos and prints with its remote’s arrow keys easier.

My first instinct was to scoff at ever needing more than the 23 free art pieces it makes available, along with the ability to upload my own photos. Quickly though, after flipping through some of the available art pieces, I changed my mind. I think it’s easy to begin to want as many choices at your fingertips as possible.

There’s a desire to see how a new picture, a new painting, would look up on your wall. Maybe it would be the perfect one to complement your decor.

Mats and Filters

One neat trick that Samsung, more than other digital frame brands, has leaned into with the Frame is applying mats and shadow boxes. Both of these are to make photos look like they’ve actually been printed and hung on the wall.

In practice, I found the visual trick to be hit or miss on whether it made the image on screen look better or worse. One area I do like the look of using a mat is with a collage of the pictures you’ve taken and uploaded. Much like Instagram filters covered up some of the poor quality of images captured on early mobile phones, these mats and collages help accommodate a wide range of photo sizes onto a big TV screen.

There are a few limited photo filters available on the Frame, as well, but I didn’t find any occasion to use those. In the end, though, it’s nice that these options are available.

The Future

“I would like to see hardware that adapts more to different aspect ratios,” Bryan Brinkman said. “Either with modular screens that can be repositioned and expanded or projectors that are easily portable for various environments. Some companies are already building more portable hardware that can plug and play into any display and further streamline the experience.”

If you look at current NFTs being sold in high quantities, a lot of them have been in square aspect ratios. There’s an opportunity for new companies to create hardware specifically for digital art in shapes other than the traditional rectangle TVs or picture frames. Of course, if a TV knows it will likely be used to display NFTs, then it can try to accommodate that through software.

At CES 2022, during the first week of January, Samsung announced an NFT platform for its smart TVs. It did so by saying, “With demand for NFTs on the rise, the need for a solution to today’s fragmented viewing and purchasing landscape has never been greater.”

This will likely be the trend elsewhere for connected displays going forward, too. Netgear, with Meural, is pursuing the crypto space by adding support for the MetaMask wallet. The startup, Infinite Objects, has already partnered with Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot to permanently show a single highlight that repeats forever.

When Samsung released the Frame in 2017, it felt like a novelty that would eventually be discontinued by the company for a lack of consumer demand. Luckily, the company stuck with it, and it now has the opportunity to become the most consumer-friendly way to display NFTs going forward.

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